Federal Reserve flow of funds accounts for Q1 2006 show the degree to which equity investments have fallen out of favor with individual investors. Flow table F100 (Households) reports annual rates of net direct sales of equities by individuals of $866.5 billion, an all-time high. This selling is interpreted as reflecting executives exercising stock […]

On April 26, 2006 at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles, California, at the Milken Institute Global Conference for 2006, the topic “Baby Boom — Baby Bomb?” was debated by Michael Milken, Chairman of the Institute, and Professor Jeremy Siegel, of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. The debate was moderated by Paul Gigot […]

Mutual funds are sold primarily on the basis of ‘performance’ measured by historical ‘total return’. The famous Morningstar rating system is based on ‘total return’, in this case ‘risk-adjusted total return’ relative to funds of the same asset category. The average American mutual fund investor is accumulating resources for retirement, say 20 or 30 years hence. […]